Robert Akira Nakamura (born July 5, 1936,
Venice, California) is a filmmaker and teacher, sometimes referred to as "the Godfather of
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...
media." In 1970 he cofounded
Visual Communications (VC) the oldest community-based
Asian Pacific American
Asian/Pacific American (APA) or Asian/Pacific Islander (API) or Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) or Asian American and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) is a term sometimes used in the United States when including both Asian a ...
media arts organization in the United States.
Personal
Nakamura was born in Venice, California to an
Issei father and
Nisei mother. He is a graduate of
Art Center College of Design (B.A., 1966) and the
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (M.F.A., 1975). He left a successful career in
photojournalism
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
and advertising photography to become one of the first to explore, interpret and present the experiences of
Japanese American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
s in film. He is married to his longtime producing partner,
Karen L. Ishizuka, and has two children, Thai Binh and
Tadashi, who is also a filmmaker.
Filmmaker
Nakamura's personal
documentary ''Manzanar'' (1972) revisited childhood memories of incarceration in an
American concentration camp during World War II and has been selected for major retrospectives on the documentary form at the
San Francisco Museum of Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary a ...
and Film Forum,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 1980 he co-directed ''Hito Hata: Raise the Banner'', considered to be one of the first Asian American feature films, produced by and about Asian Americans. He is the recipient of more than 30 national awards. He was the first to receive Visual Communications' Steve Tatsukawa Memorial Award in 1985 for leadership in Asian American media. In 1994 the Asian Pacific American Coalition in Cinema, Theatre & Television of UCLA instituted the "Robert A. Nakamura Award" to recognize outstanding contributions of other Asian Pacific American visual artists. In 1996 he founded the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications. In 1997, the
Smithsonian Institution presented a retrospective of his work. Also that year he created (with Ishizuka) the Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center at the
Japanese American National Museum. In 1999 he was named the Japanese American Alumni Professor of Japanese American Studies at
UCLA, where he is presently an emeritus professor. Nakamura's film ''Manzanar'' was preserved by the
Academy Film Archive in 2011.
Filmography
* ''Manzanar'' (1972)
* ''Wataridori: Birds of Passage'' (1975)
* ''Hito Hata: Raise the Banner'' (1980)
* ''Fool's Dance'' (1980)
* ''Moving Memories'' (1993)
* ''Looking Like the Enemy'' (1995)
* ''
Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray'' (2002)
References
External links
* Biography of Nakamura at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center based on an encyclopedia article.
*
*. Several films directed by Robert Nakamura can be viewed on a Vimeo channel.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakamura, Robert A.
1936 births
American documentary filmmakers
Japanese-American internees
American film directors of Japanese descent
UCLA Film School alumni
Living people